Oxford Film Festival Blog

The audience choice award winner for best music video is Wolf Ruffin's "Mother Never Held Me."
The audience choice award winner for best overall film is the documentary feature "An Ordinary Hero" by Loki Mulholland which also won the Hoka award for Best Documentary Feature.

We are proud to present two narrative feature films straight from Park City. First up on Friday night at 8:30 p.m. is "Best Friends Forever."
Harriet, a comic book artist with a secret, and her reckless BFF, Reba, take their ’76 AMC Pacer on the open road and their friendship gets a wild ride towards an impending nuclear apocalypse.

BEST FRIENDS FOREVER is a clever dark comedy and heartfelt road trip buddy film wrapped in an apocalyptic disaster story, with two badass girls. Harriet, a perpetually optimistic comic-book artist, dreams of escaping her past in Los Angeles and hits the road for a new life in Austin, Texas. She drags Reba, her seemingly devil-may-care BFF, along for the ride. In the hush period following mysterious nuclear explosions, the girls are forced to ask: When faced with the end of the world - what is most important to you?

On Saturday at 7:15 p.m. is Sundance winner "This is Martin Bonner." We are especially excited to screen Chad Hartigan's second feature as we also showed his first film "Luke and Brie are on a First Date" at a previous OFF.

The striking sophomore film of writer/director Chad Hartigan, THIS IS MARTIN BONNER is a warm and perceptive meditation on friendship, human connection and getting a second chance at life. Fifty-something Martin Bonner (Paul Eenhorn) leaves his old life behind and relocates to Reno, where he finds work helping released prisoners transition to life on the outside, while trying his hand at speed dating and passing time as a soccer referee on weekends. Meanwhile, Travis Holloway (Richmond Arquette) has just been released from prison after serving 12 years. Surprising both of them, Travis and Martin form an unlikely friendship that offers them reciprocal support and understanding.

Quietly observational and naturalistic, the film features noteworthy breakthrough performances from Eenhoorn and Arquette who approach their characters with a lived-in sense of low-key restraint.

Shot on location in Reno, NV, the film’s stunning visuals create an undercurrent theme of finding beauty in the unexpected.

Director Chad Hartigan, Keegan Dewitt (score) and Jeffrey Ruggles (producer) will be in attendance for the Q&A.

The Oxford Film Festival is excited to announce working with the Mississippi Film Office, MFVA and OxFilm to host the third Mississippi Table Read on Wednesday, February 20 at the Powerhouse Community Arts Center.
The free program begins at 5:30 p.m. with a reception followed by TableRead Mississippi at 6 p.m.

The featured script will be Beulah, written for the screen by Gail Gilchriest (My Dog Skip) based on the novel Why Beulah Shot Her Pistol Inside the Baptist Church written by the late Clayton Sullivan, professor of religion at the University of Southern Mississippi.

A table read is a gathering of actors around a table to read a script aloud to give filmmakers, producers, and writers an idea of how the final production will sound. It is a valuable tool in the creative process, because it can ensure that a scene actually plays well using real actors and conveys the intended message to the audience.

The film will be produced in Mississippi by New Albany native Hudson Hickman, who is the former VP of TV production at MGM. Hickman has a long career serving as producer of popular television shows including; The Love Boat, MacGyver, and Stargate. The film will be directed by Steve Herek whose work includes “Critters,” “Bill and Ted’s Excellent Adventure,” “Don’t Tell Mom The Babysitter’s Dead” “101 Dalmatians,” “Mr. Holland’s Opus” and more. Both will be in attendance to hear local actors read the script.

Thank you for your interest in volunteering for the 10th anniversary Oxford Film Festival. Our window for volunteering has now closed and, thankfully, our slots have been filled.
We will start recruiting volunteers for the next festival in November/December 2013.